As a band said last year, “Sunday, bloody hell, we’ll get through this together”, we’re clinging onto reality by our fingernails by this point but we are of course heading into town for one last hurrah. Spring has finally arrived, which will make things a bit sweatier, but after a hair of the dog and catching up with a few jaded faces we’re vaguely ready to go again. Today we’re kicking off with the welcome return of Belgium’s For I Am to Manchester Punk Festival. They of course a bring a frantic hit of anthemic melodic punk rock to an absolutely rammed Pink Room in Yes. It might be the last day but if people are feeling as jaded as I am, which they probably are, it’s not obvious. Although it turned out the reason for not feeling like my usual self wasn’t necessarily down to yesterday’s excesses.

Next we head downstairs the Yes’s basement to catch A Void, who bring a grungier heavier sound to the afternoon, singer and guitarist Camille Alexander is a perpetually animated focus point. Reminiscent of the likes of Hole and Healthy Junkies they keep the European spirit of our early afternoon burning bright before we heard over to The Union to catch something more local in the shape of northern heavyweights Bruise Control. 

As we arrive Bruise Control are already absolutely hammering through their set. They physically resemble a hairy rock behemoth of the early 1970s, but that’s where the similarity ends as Bruise Control deliver short fast hits of supercharged punk ‘n roll. No More’s thunderous beats kick in and its two word chorus gets a rousing reception from the crowd. Okay there may be a few touches of rock ‘n roll excess rolled into their bruising set but this is local DIY fury wrapped up in a conundrum of rock ‘n roll and big hair. 

In The Union we encounter an old school fanzine seller, yeah, actual paper, which is the first time I’ve encountered such a thing in a long long time, it turns out we both fondly remember the Bugs & Drugs fanzine of the 90’s. Go check out One Way To Cubesville as the printed fanzine is a dying art and that’s a shame, he says tapping away on his laptop. We catch Copenhagen’s Forever Unclean next, an appropriate name for day 3 of a festival, as we’re not moving from The Union. To my ears this sounds like acoustic punk transplanted to full volume. Melodic and bouncy and the perfect catchy soundtrack for my mid afternoon recovery, surprisingly my aching feet finally start to move, although something ain’t feeling quite right, although this is not a reflection on Manchester Punk Festival.

There are more random encounters and the spirit of Manchester Punk Festival is still alive and well despite the excesses of the last few days. Speaking of excess, next up is Pizzatramp, expanded to a four piece for today, an unofficial source advised me that this was due to two bass players being booked for this gig, which if true is par for the course for this utterly chaotic Welsh hardcore outfit who may or may not be splitting up this year, opinion is divided as to whether this will happen, only time will tell.

Pizzatramp are utter chaos, part of their appeal is that you are watching a car crash, their set is fuelled by whatever has pissed vocalist and guitarist Jimmy off this week, as well as whatever he’s ingested, but they are always gloriously entertaining for exactly the same reasons. Jimmy’s opening greeting of “Good evening Manchester Nonce Festival you stupid cunts” sets the tone. The expanded line up keeps the intensity going in between the abuse and random observations that are part of any Pizzatramp set. With their four piece line up this resembles a dysfunctional version Welsh version of Slayer, alternating between political rage, abuse at the festival organisers for putting him on a Sunday after he took pills yesterday and a relentless barrage of abuse towards random targets. Jimmy ends the set throwing up into a bin whilst the band plays on, some things don’t change.

We lost one of our number to illness this morning, whatever struck them down earlier today claimed its second victim in the early evening so with regret we curtailed our weekend due to the down side of festivals, which is an almost inevitable sharing of a collection of viruses, bugs and assorted illnesses which get liberally shared when you’re crammed into rooms with hordes of sweaty people. Which is annoying, firstly as no one likes being ill, secondly because these things usually kick in after the festival when you’re already on the couch, and thirdly as there was still the likes of Strung Out, Gen & The Degenerates, Talco and Burnt Tapes on offer, not to mention those closing after party cover sets of The Prodigy and NOFX that is really wanted to check out. Sadly it was not to be, I retire for the day feeling rather sorry for myself, unlike Pizzatramp I don’t have anyone on hand with a handy bucket, and I don’t think Gary Hough was up for the role even if we did!

Did we get catch everyone we wanted to see, well obviously not, especially today, we didn’t even get to visit each of the venues, which is the first year that we’ve failed to do that. Manchester Punk Festival occupies a unique space in the UK’s punk scene and just seems to get bigger and bolder with each passing year. We’ve been lucky enough to cover this now well established annual highlight since 2019, and if we have anything to do with it we’ll continue to do so until we’re just too damn old to do it anymore.

The Manchester Punk Festival will return between the 3rd and 5th April 2026 and early bird tickets are now on sale here.

Live photography courtesy of Gary Hough from Shot From Both Sides

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